The Ayres

Ancient trees and an excess of water.

Tuesday 4th March, 2014.

Dorothy's email suggested a hike on Tuesday and continued "The plan is to walk from the car park in Bride and walk to Cranstal and look at the ancient tree stumps in passing. Walk to the lighthouse and on to the visitors centre. 

I went the other day and couldn't drive up to the building at the centre, or even walk to it in my wellies. Water everywhere. If we keep to the coastal path from the lighthouse and then back towards that clump of trees before the visitors centre road, last stretch, we will be OK. Lots of water laying towards the little woodland where we had a struggle to keep dry feet once before. Couldn't get towards that area the other day."

It sounded like a very interesting hike and the weather couldn't have been much better.  It was sunny and dry.  The only possible excuse for complaining was the rather chilly breeze but we always expect a bit of wind out on the Ayres.

We started off, walking briskly along the tarred road from Bride towards the Point of Ayre before turning off to the right along a short cul-de-sac which used to lead past a farmhouse to two old fishermen's cottages at Cranstal. The cottages were lost to the sea during the 1960's and 70's  and the little road now ends abruptly at the top of the low cliffs.

We managed to find a place where we could scramble safely down onto the beach.

We wanted to have a look at the remains of an alleged 10,000 year old forest which had been uncovered by the winter storms.  There had been two articles in a local newspaper about the forest.   http://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/isle-of-man-news/storms-uncover-10-000-year-old-forest-on-isle-of-man-coast-1-6436517  and  http://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/isle-of-man-news/people-stealing-souvenirs-from-isle-of-man-s-ancient-forest-1-6460772   The second article mentioned that souvenir hunters had been busy on the beach, so we hoped that we weren't too late to see some of the old stumps and logs.

First we had a quick look down the beach towards Ramsey.  The cliffs had taken quite a beating but there were no signs of the forest so we turned north. 

This old structure, possibly part of an old sewage system, gave an indication of how much the level of the beach had dropped recently.  The last time we walked this way the weathered bricks on the top were almost level with the surface of the beach.

A little further north we found the site of the forest.  We should have visited Cranstal earlier because the site had obviously changed since it was first discovered - partly due to subsequent spring tides and partly because of the human vandals.

There seemed to be a significant dark layer of old compressed peat which must have been on the surface of the island before the sea levels rose at the end of the last ice age.   

We discovered two ancient logs which appeared to be partly buried in the layer of old peat.

And we think the darker of these two blobs protruding from the sand may be the top of an old stump.

We continued up the beach.  I was interested in this newly uncovered layer of brighter coloured clay and pebbles. The cliffs above used to be a favourite place for sand martins nests.  All gone now.  The poor birds will have to excavate new tunnels into the cliffs when they arrive in spring.

A little further on we climbed up to the edge of the fields where there used to be a path outside the paddock fence. 

There is no path now and the fence has gone too but we walked along the edge of the fields.  I was amazed to see debris washed up onto the field.  The waves must have broken right over the top of the low cliffs.

Down by the sea a group of oystercatchers were enjoying the sun.

We walked past the lighthouse and I paused to take a photo of some dog walkers passing the old foghorn - with the "Winkie" in the background.

Then it was a long cold walk back towards the visitor centre where Dorothy had predicted that we could turn  " . . .  back towards that clump of trees before the visitors centre road".

Well this was the scene that confronted us!  The road to the Visitor Centre was under water and the clump of trees by the road are on the far side of the lake.

There was water as far as the eye could see - in every direction!

There was a discussion about whether to try to get around the water or whether to remove boots and socks, roll up jeans, and wade through.  The others opted for wading up the road, while I wandered off in a southerly direction as I wanted to explore the extent of the water - and it turned out to be even more extensive than I anticipated.  

I managed to avoid the wettest bits for a while and then ended up with water in my boots and stopped caring.  After wading through some of the less deep puddles, I reached a relatively dry path which led back to road near the entrance to the Ayres but then I came across this "puddle".

The only way around the puddle was through an unappetising combination of thick heather, low gorse and bog!  But I was already sopping wet from my knees down and it was Hobson's choice.

My detour had taken well over half an hour.  I felt rather guilty and hoped the others had just headed back to Bride and the cars without me.  But they were waiting for the "lost sheep of the group".

On the road back to Bride we saw fields of ewe's with lambs.  The lambs looked a bit damp - not their usual pristine white - but they are always very cute.